In case you haven't been following the drama on Gambling911.com for the past week, online poker payment platform PIC Club Poker has been involved in a heated exchange with Merge Poker network over monies they claim are owed to them.  Merge says they owe nothing as a "whale" charged back his credit card and made several entries and exits at various Merge poker rooms, accumulating heavy fees as a result (PIC Club Poker charges fees on each deposit and withdrawal).

PIC Club Poker CEO Chuck Kidd has offered what he says is his FINAL response in this matter.

Dear Poker Players,

For nearly three years now the PICClub team and I have strived to build and

operate a safe and secure way for poker players to get their money into a

poker room so they can play the game we all love.

I invested my life savings from 30 years of work to start the PICClub

because I thought our U.S. Government was out of line in telling me that I

couldn't play poker with my own (already taxed) retirement funds.  I sold

everything I owned and  moved to Costa Rica to build a dream called PICClub

because many friends and partners who know me and believed in me insisted

that I not let the dream die.

We at PICClub have worked, as a team, extremely long hours for little or no

money to keep PICClub alive.  When we advertise "24/7 Support" we mean it.

Can anyone out there in the poker world recall a single time when you

couldn't reach someone to speak with at PIC to try to get your problem

resolved?  I couldn't be more proud of the people who work for PICClub for

the job they do every day for our members.

At a time in this industry when companies were running from the U.S. market

and abandoning the U.S. players, PICClub ran to it.  We found a way to get

your funds to poker rooms when nobody else could.  Was I naive at times in

how I did business? Of course I was, I wasn't from this Industry.  I spent

my life working where a handshake and a contract meant something.

I find myself now in an industry that seems to attract a lot of snakes lured

by the idea of fast, untraceable money.  At various conferences around the

world I shook hands with people that caused me to count the fingers on my

hand afterward to make sure I got them all back.

But, just because there are some bad people in this industry that I

sometimes have to deal with, it doesn't mean that I have to lower myself to

their level.  My father told me when I was 13 yrs old that a man is born

with something very precious call Integrity.  No one can take it from you,

but you can choose to give it up.  Well, in my 58 yrs on this earth I have

never surrendered to temptation to be a snake or a thief and give up my

integrity and I will be damned if I am going to give it up now, or allow to

go unchallenged the accusations that people with some kind of ax to grind,

or with some other agenda in hand, to have only their innuendo and outright

lies be heard.

PICClub and I have the support of many well respected people in this

industry who think like I do and believe that a man's word, handshake and

honor mean something. It grieves me that there are people out there in this

world who have never met me, yet will go into a public arena like the

internet and make accusations with no evidence whatsoever, just an agenda it

seems - to tear down something or someone.  What drives these people?  I

really don't know. Maybe it's envy or hate or just plain wanting to be mean

and ornery because they can hide behind the

anonymity of the internet.  I don't understand where this perceived hatred

for me personally, or for PICClub, has come from.  I thought creating a

company, hiring people and providing a service that was needed was a good

thing.  I am amazed at the people who lose or give their money to a poker

site that takes rake from every hand played, yet who seem to be upset that

PICClub charges a fee for our service to the poker room(s) or that it should

be okay for a poker room to stiff PICClub on fees owed under a legitimate

contract.

As to the subject at hand, this Merge vs. PICClub battle as everyone seems

to want to call it.  Let me simply state this; I gave to G911 all the

documentation I had to support our case that Merge owes PICClub money, and

only did so when they missed not only the multiple deadlines that we had set

for payment, but their own stated deadlines that they set for themselves and

then subsequently missed. After four months of their refusing  to pay, and

countless hours of negotiations and compromises on the part of PICClub, it

became evident that they had no

Intention to pay their debt and it was time to speak out.

At no time did I ever asked Chris to spin a story in any way, I simply asked

him to read the documentation and write whatever he saw fit to write.  I

have had no conversation with him about PICClub before or since sending that

information and I don't intend to in the future on this issue.  The story is

what it is and it will write itself.  If Chris doesn't want to write it I'll

just post it all on the internet myself and let all of you see it - warts

and all - and then everyone can make up their own minds.  PICClub and I have

nothing to hide.

One part of this story that hasn't been told yet is that I agreed with Merge

and thought that the fees relating to the whale's play were out of line and

we went back into the system and reviewed the fees and wiped them off the

ledger for every single Merge Operator that may have lost money due to those

fees.  We offered to eat $60,000 worth of those fees so that no small

operator would be hurt.  What I was not willing to deduct were the fees due

from the Merge owned rooms (PDC and Carbon) as they made a killing from the

whales play, as they themselves have admitted.  As to the credit card charge

backs, PICClub was hurt far worse than anyone on this issue and Merge only

suffered because they offered the whale a direct deal that effectively cut

PICClub out of the picture, which was in direct violation of the contract

that was in place between PIC and Merge.  Had they not done that PICClub

would have been on the hook for the Merge charge backs as well. AND HAD WE

BEEN, WE WOULD HAVE PAID!

Another part of the story that hasn't been printed yet is that I was willing

to temporarily set aside the fee issue and did everything but beg the CEO of

Merge to send us the $40,000 necessary to pay their players cash outs.

These were already late and I protected Merge at the expense of PICClub by

sending out an email, effectively taking the blame for this while we were

getting beat up in the forums.  Merge wanted PICClub to send all cash outs

back to Merge with no reasonable explanation given to the players.  QUOTE

"How about simply PICClub and Merge have unfortunately decided to end their

relationship and as such your withdrawal cannot be processed. However, the

money has been placed back into your player account. For any queries please

contact cashier@mergegaming.com." After a 45-day delay, that was his

solution.  I wasn't willing to do that and not explain to our members what

had taken place.  The email that PICClub sent out was read by and approved

by the Merge CEO.  We again took the hit and tried to protect the players.

And CEO quotes again "I still think it's easier to cancel so you don't have

to deal with it.  I am sure players are pissed already having to wait that

long."

So I ask you... Which company here was looking out for the players?  Why did

they have to wait that long?  It most certainly was not because of PICClub.

If they either would not, or could not pay the fees, how could I know they

would pay the members of PICClub who used our service.  I wanted that

$40,000 in our bank so that I would

be 100% certain that our members would get their funds.

This issue has me tired out - I was tired of it weeks ago - and quite

frankly I am tired of people who don't have a single fact in this issue

trying to hurt what my team and I have spent so many hours trying to build.

If you want to attack me personally then bring your evidence and post it for

all to see!  But to try to tear down PICClub and put a lot of people out of

work and cause a lot of poker players to not have a way to play for no other

reason than spite or ignorance is, quite frankly, disgusting to any

reasonable person and should be considered insulting to those who love this

game called poker.

I have nothing more than this final statement to make publicly on this

issue.  There are those out there that will use my words here out of

context, or find fault or pick a word or paragraph to take exception too.

Well have at it folks, I've said my piece. Every word I have said here about

this issue is in the documents sent to G911.

Neither PICClub, it's Staff or I have ever done anything to put at risk a

PICClub members money.  Not a single dollar has been made from providing

this service to PICClub members or from those members who got caught up in

this controversy.  We only make our money from the poker rooms - PERIOD!

PICClub is here to stay and naysayers be damned.  There are plenty of honest

poker room operators out there who will sign on with PICClub in the near

future to ensure that.

Pocket Aces To All,

Chuck Kidd

CEO

PICCLUB.COM